


Hyde

by Sermocinare



Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-29
Updated: 2011-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-17 09:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/175211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sermocinare/pseuds/Sermocinare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrian loses control in a fight, with disastrous results.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hyde

Disarm.  
Easy enough.  
Adrian ducked underneath the line of the shot, then rose again in one fluid motion, his hands already around his opponent's wrist and lower arm. One sharp twist, a tearing of sinew and breaking of bone, and the gun fell to the floor with a clatter. Adrian kicked it away, out of reach, without conscious thought.

This was where it should have ended. The criminal had been disarmed, and that should have been enough. But it wasn't. Not this time. With a feral snarl that sounded nothing like him, didn't even belong to him, Adrian clamped his right hand around his opponent's throat, his left still holding the man's broken wrist in a vice-like grip. Fingers digging into the criminal's throat, he lifted and then pushed, the man's feet scrabbling helplessly over the dirty concrete floor. Two steps was all it took. Two steps, and the man's eyes grew wide as the back of his head connected to the wall with a sickening, wet crack. Another push and his opponent went limp, dropping to the floor as Adrian released his hold around the other man's neck, feeling a deep, primal satisfaction wash through him.

It was only as Adrian watched the blood pool around the dead man's crushed skull that he realized what had happened, and satisfaction turned to disgust. He had lost control for nothing more than mere seconds, a few angry heartbeats, and this was the result. Adrian felt a shudder deep within his core, but it didn’t penetrate the surface.

"Shit, Ozy, I thought you were s'posed to be a pacifist?"  
The Comedian sounded almost impressed, a fact that brought a bitter taste to Adrian's mouth.

The room had gone quiet, if not quieter, and as he turned to face it, Adrian noted that the man Laurie had taken into an armlock seconds before the gunman had appeared on the scene was no longer struggling. Instead, he was looking at Ozymandias with an expression caught somewhere between fear and awe. Adrian noted that Laurie wore almost the same expression only that in her case, there was also a hint of confusion. As if she didn’t know what to make of what she had just seen.

“Well,” Eddie went on, and Adrian wondered for a second if there was anything that would ever make this man shut up, “that’s one less perverted asshole sittin’ in jail eatin’ off honest people’s money. Not a great loss, if you ask me.” The Comedian grinned, a bright and cheerful expression that nevertheless reminded Adrian of a lion about to sink its teeth into its prey’s stomach.

Adrian made a noncommittal noise, looking from his fellow vigilantes to the corpse on the floor, eyes narrowing slightly. The man was – no, had been – part of an organization they had been watching for a few weeks now. From what they had found out, these men had been involved in human trafficking, preying on the poor and destitute who wanted to come to the US in hopes of a better future, only to find themselves virtually enslaved to their self-proclaimed saviours. So yes, Adrian doubted that this man’s demise was a serious loss for humanity. Still, he couldn’t help the strange feeling that was creeping up his spine. Guilt, mostly, but also something else. A strange kind of fear, almost like the fear he remembered from the times he’d been a small child, and afraid of the monster underneath his bed, an irrational fear of some unseen dread that lurked in the dark parts of his own mind.

But this fear of the dark had no place in the here and now. He would put it away, banish it into the depths of his memory until he had time to analyze his feelings from a more rational perspective. Right now, this investigation and raid had to be wrapped up.

The police didn’t ask any questions. When Laurie told them that the man had suddenly appeared as if out of nowhere and started to open fire, no one cared about how exactly he had died any more. Everybody was glad that this particular gang was off the map for good, and that was that.

It had been a long, harrowing night, but Adrian didn’t feel like sleeping. Instead, he sat in his darkened apartment, watching the shadows of an even darker night, cast by the city’s lights, falling through the high windows, and wondering why he’d never noticed that if you only stared long enough, they appeared to move.


End file.
